Modern technology has provided consumers with a wide variety of electronic devices with which to capture digital content, such as but not limited to content captured in video, audio, photo, text or other format. This phenomenon coupled with advances in networked communication, such as communication via the Internet, has resulted in greater content sharing among individuals. Several existing computer-based applications or related systems provide features for assisting a content producer with the distribution of digital content.
There are systems in place today that can distribute content to a known set of users. Also, some peer-to-peer (P2P) systems exist that can distribute content to anyone and everyone. However, such known systems do not account for potential scenarios where a content producer desires a limited, controlled distribution to a dynamic, unstructured social network. For example, a teenager creates a home video for fun. He wants some of his friends to see it, but not the entire world. Another scenario may involve a movie producer who wants to distribute a movie preview to a select number of reviewers and their associates, but not to everyone. Yet another example is where a family takes some video of a child's birthday party. The family would like for extended family and close friends to see it, but not have it available to the general public.
The scenarios mentioned above involve situations where a “limited viral distribution” is desired. The content producer does not want to identify exactly who is extended family or what constitutes “close friend”. Ideally, the content producer wants the content to spread virally to some “degree of separation”. “Degree of separation” used here refers to how far away (levels) one user is away from the originating user in a “friend of a friend” (FOAF) or other type of social network. In these examples the user wants to seed the content to a select group of people and allow them to have the freedom to spread the content further—at their discretion, and to users of their choice. However, the viral spread needs to be controlled, so as not to permit the content going to the general public. Additionally, the content producer may want to provide a different quality or portion of the content for users as they are farther “out” on the social network.
In order to implement technology that provides a content producer with an ability to virally distribute digital content to their social network while providing controls on distribution and access, unique mechanisms for digital rights and license management are needed. One known technology for managing the distribution of digital content includes a mechanism for creating a digital content container with certain access rights. The content container can be distributed across a P2P network while checking with a license server to determine if a user has rights to the content. If a user does not have rights, he can acquire rights and be issued a valid license in the form of a token, which allows the content to be viewed.
In other known technologies, a rights manager may use a system of keys and licenses that lets content providers deliver digital content over the Internet in a protected, encrypted file format. An example of such technology is embodied by Microsoft® Windows Media® Rights Manager.
Despite the availability of various systems for implementing digital rights management and license distribution, a need exists for a system and method that configures and manages controlled content distribution based on a number of levels, or “degrees of separation” among a content producer and one or more content recipients. Also, a system and method for configuration and management of licenses that accommodates license creation based on predefined level-rights selected by a content producer is also needed.